Comments on: How To Make a Foie Gras au Torchon

By: Jason Black

Jason Black — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:21:41 +0000

I just did a long, low temperature sous-vide of foie gras, shaped in a torchon. I rolled it about 6.5 cm, after marinating with port, pink salt, sugar. I cooked it for 1 hour minutes at 45 degrees, using a Clifton waterbath. It came out beautifully, minimal volume loss, and creamy, but well defined “lobe” centre……1 piece torchon, 2 hour treadmill…sounds about right…

By: harmony | the lay gastronomer

harmony | the lay gastronomer — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:25:05 +0000

[...] it’s a tray of lasagna or a foie gras torchon or the humblest of sandwiches, balanced flavors that are in tune with one another are key to a [...]

By: JulienT

JulienT — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 09:39:16 +0000

It makes you happy, which in turns boost your immune system and prevent depression A side effect is that enjoying great and subtle food like foie gras prevents you from enjoying something else, like a Big Mac or any other type of junk food, which in turns is very healthy.

By: Jeff McCarthy : Tentop presents “Supfast” - Part 1.

Jeff McCarthy : Tentop presents “Supfast” - Part 1. — Thu, 26 May 2011 01:15:21 +0000

[...] in tentop’s latest dinner “Supfast,” we this called Duck in a Blanket. We rolled foie gras torchon into a thin pancake and served it with a maple gastrique and crushed hazelnut brittle. This dish [...]

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:07:01 +0000

the french laundry does something similar, basically makes a torchon, tamis it and pipes it into terrine molds. works great.

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:06:22 +0000

If France it’s recognized as a premiere diet food.

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:05:31 +0000

good points about balsamic and prosciutto

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:08:38 +0000

I used to make mine this way but when I was running a casual cafe and wanted to serve foie on the cheap I figured out a different technique. Buy the foie gras end pieces & tid bits which are only 20 bucks a pound and place em all in a zip lock bag and drop into water bath for about a minute then push through a tamis and into a cylinder mold to give it the torchon look. I could serve a 4oz portion for 10$! Then the cafe ended up closing..

By: Kitchen Boy

Kitchen Boy — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:04:11 +0000

I curious to know what is benefit of foie gras for our health ? Can somebody tell me ?

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:54:13 +0000

how much of a difference does it make poaching in stock versus water? looks like from your photos you just used water…

for only spending 90 seconds in there, i would think it is too short to matter…

By: bob del Grosso

bob del Grosso — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:57:03 +0000

To put a finer spin on this. Imagine having to poach 200 pounds of foie gras au torchon in cloth a week, while satisfying all of the USDA requirements.

By: bob del Grosso

bob del Grosso — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:50:28 +0000

You are right: wrapping it in a cloth and vacuuming it does work well. I’ve done it several times with good results.

By: bob del Grosso

bob del Grosso — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:13:31 +0000

The recipe I wrote was originally titled “Foie gras au Torchon,” and I, like Kate, cringed whenever anyone referred to it as simply “Torchon.”
However, I decided to get over it and go with the flow for one very obvious reason. When everyone around you is calling it “Torchon” you quickly start sounding pedantic if you insist on correcting each person who misstates the name. And then there is the question of whether or not we want the dish to become more broadly accepted by the American public.

I can think of dozens of foods that would never have become widely accepted if the producers insisted that the proper names be used. To an Italian “Balsamic Vinegar” is “Aceto Balsamico” and “prosciutto” (as in air dried ham) is usually “Prosciutto di Parma” or “Prosciutto Daniele” and so on. I still get a little crazy when I hear people say “mut-za-rell” and not “motz-a-rell-a” but that’s my problem, not theirs.

So, apart from not wanting to offend a francophone or francophile when we describe the finished product by the cloth within which it was cooked (Not an uncommon thing in any language. For example “petite marmite” is a broth and the vessel in which the broth is served.) I see no reason not to call it a torchon. That said, I agree with your decision to use the correct name in the title of the post.

Did I ever bother you with my rant on the corruption of the term “mise en place?” Talk about pedantry…

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:41:04 +0000

I’m not saying that it’s bad. I like it. I think it should be presented on the next episode of Sesame Street as the letter the day. “Today’s letter is “Z” brought to you by duck fat.”

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:20:30 +0000

Thanks for the comments, Kate. Your proportions sound great to me (I reduced the sugar!)

Especially grateful you corrected the term. I’ve fixed in the post. I should run this stuff past you before I publish!

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:09:20 +0000

Del Grosso has to do sous vide for production reasons. A home cook doesn’t. I would put my traditional up against your sous vide one any day. In fact, as that would require our getting together, we should do this!

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:08:08 +0000

Plating was very rushed and last minute!

By: kate hill

kate hill — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:35:39 +0000

M-I love that a traditionally prepared foie gras is moving into the everyday realm- ok, maybe not every day, but demystifying technique is an important part of sharing the love. Next, we’ll start talking about duck gavage!
Living in foie gras land- Gascony- means enjoying foie gras many ways. However nothing, NOTHING, is better than a simply prepared ‘foie gras au torchon’. My 2 centimes? Watch the amount of sugar used- there is a tendency to use too much sugar in everything in Amerique. In preserving here, I use 2 gr.sugar, 2 gr pepper & 15 gr salt per kilo. (no pink salt needed) And please- don’t call it a kitchen towel. Calling it a Torchon is like saying Frisco or San Fran for that lovely city by the Bay. Grates on the francophile ears!

By: E. Nassar

E. Nassar — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:08:43 +0000

bob del Grosso Michael Now that I’ve had a chance to read the post on a computer (I only have a Droid to read on at the farm) I have to say that it’s a damn nice post. Extremely thorough and informative. I still think you are overstating the down side of sous vide. One could argue that the poor results you got were in part a function of the fact that you didn’t vacuum which is, after all, a fundamental part of the process. When Mike and I worked on this, we vacuumed, got no fat deposits and lost between 6 and 13 % of the green (raw) weight during cooking. I even made a few where I took the fat and used it like couverture on the torchon and dropped the fat loss to less than 5%. I’m sorry I did not warn you when you wrote that you were using a zip lock. It’s just did not cross my mind to say anything. So, don’t give up on sous vide it’s a great technique.

I would think wrapping the torchon with cloth exactly as Michael did and then using a FoodSaver to bag it like Pardus said should work perfectly fine.

By: Toni

Toni — Fri, 13 May 2011 06:07:43 +0000

The torchon looks great. Still, I think my favorite way to eat foie is seared, on really good grilled French bread with a small dab of slightly sweetened wild blackberry preserves on most bites. Really good REAL balsamic vinegar is nice, too, but not quite as tasty as the blackberry preserves.